


What Do We Do Now?

by Samunderthelights



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, M/M, Post-Battle of Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-13 11:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16017251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samunderthelights/pseuds/Samunderthelights
Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry expects his life to finally calm down. But instead, he finds himself looking after baby Teddy, and then there is the issue of dealing with Draco...





	1. Chapter 1

Harry is in the Great Hall, looking around him, his entire body aching. There is no more fighting, no more screaming, no more flashes blinding him. There is now a horrible silence. The only sound coming from people whispering to each other, or people crying. Crying over the friends or family members that they have lost that night. Friends and family like Fred, Tonks, Lupin… Lupin, the last of Harry’s father’s friends. The last of The Marauders. Lupin, the new father. Lying there, dead. Next to his wife. Leaving baby Teddy without parents. Leaving him in the same situation as Harry back when he had been a baby. Harry feels sick to his stomach, because this is all his fault. They are dead because of him. If only he had gone to see Voldemort earlier. If only he had found and destroyed the Horcruxes sooner. If only… Harry looks at Mrs. Weasley, who is sitting with Fred, crying, while holding his hand. The rest of the Weasley’s, together with Fleur and Hermione are standing around them, also crying, all holding each other. Harry feels sick to his stomach, and he gets up. He looks at Remus and Tonks a final time, and leaves the Great Hall. He sits down in one of the hallways, which is covered in rubble, dust, bricks, blood… Harry breaks down, and he buries his face in his hands. This is all his fault...

But then he hears footsteps, so he quickly grabs his wand, and holds it up. He sees the blond young man, and recognises him, even through his tears. He stands up, and prepares himself to fight. Draco’s mother had protected him, she had lied against Voldemort for him, and Harry had hoped that maybe, just maybe, the Malfoys had finally realised just how evil Voldemort really was. But now that Draco has followed him here, when he is on his own… There can be no other reason, other than to try and finish him off. He must be here to finish the job, to avenge Voldemort’s death. Every inch of Harry’s body is aching, and he knows that he is too weak to fight right now. But he will fight. After tonight, after everyone who has died, everyone he has lost over the last years, he will not go down without a fight.  
“Do your best,” he says, but then he realises that Draco isn’t even carrying a wand.  
“I just want to talk, Potter. I’m not here to fight,” he says, and it actually takes a few seconds for Harry to realise that he is telling the truth. Harry falls back down onto a piece of the wall that has broken off, too tired, too emotionally broken to hold himself up. Draco sits down on another piece of the wall, and he lets out a deep sigh.  
“I am truly sorry,” Draco says, but Harry just keeps staring down at his feet. Why? Why would Draco apologise? What is the point?  
“I don’t care.”  
“I am though. And I am sorry about your friends. About Lupin, Tonks…”  
“You hated them.”  
“Tonks was my cousin,” Draco says, but Harry just laughs, shaking his head. “I did care, Potter. And Sirius…”  
“Don’t you dare speak about Sirius,” Harry says, now looking furious, and he points his wand back up at Draco. “You didn’t even know him, so don’t you dare!”  
“I didn’t want any of this,” Draco tries, fear in his eyes because of the wand. But Harry can also see that he is telling the truth. So he lowers his wand, and looks down at his feet. “I never wanted to do any of that. But if I wouldn’t do it, he would kill me. Or he would kill my parents,” Draco explains. Harry looks up, and sees tears in his eyes. He has never seen Draco like this. He has seen him scared, he has seen him angry, but he has never seen him like this, sad, full of regret, pain. He had always felt hate for him, but now he just feels sorry for him.  
“Why are you telling me?” he asks, and Draco shrugs, his lip slightly quivering.  
“I don’t want this, Potter. I don’t want any of it. I don’t want this fighting, this… I don’t…,” he tries, but then a tear falls from his eye, and he quickly wipes it away, looking embarrassed. “I don’t want this,” he repeats, pointing at his arm, to the place of which Harry knows the dark mark must be.  
“But why are you telling me?” Harry tries again, and Draco wipes away another tear.  
“Because I want you to know the truth. I am not evil, I am not like him,” Draco says. “I know the things I’ve done are awful, but… I don’t actually hate you, Potter.”  
“I don’t care,” Harry says, all of the sudden feeling the anger building up inside of him. “My friends have all risked their lives, some of them have died. Everyone here, they…,” he says, and he gets up. “They stood up to him, they didn’t give in to him because they were scared. You’re just a coward, Malfoy!” Harry realises that he is shouting, but he can’t stop himself. “You could have stood up to him, you could have fought! You could have died!” he shouts, even though he knows that he is being completely unreasonable. Draco has gotten up as well, but he doesn’t say anything, he just looks ashamed of himself. “They shouldn’t have died,” Harry then says, and he breaks down. He knows that he is showing weakness in front of Draco, but he doesn’t even care anymore. “They shouldn’t have died!” he shouts, and he pushes Draco hard against the chest.  
“No, they shouldn’t have,” Draco agrees, and Harry punches him in the chest again. Draco lets him, and Harry just keeps pushing and punching him, letting it all out, until Draco is standing with his back against the wall. Harry is still punching him, tears streaming down his face. But then Draco puts his hands on the side of Harry’s neck, and he presses his lips against Harry’s. Harry immediately stops punching, and he steps back, now looking more shocked than angry.  
“What was that?” he asks, but Draco just shrugs.  
“I just wanted you to calm down.”  
“And you thought that that would calm me down? What is wrong with you?” Harry asks, and he storms away, leaving Draco standing there on his own.

It has been a few weeks since the Battle of Hogwarts, and nothing has been the same since. Harry had worried about Teddy losing his parents, but that day he hadn’t even realised that, because he had been Teddy’s godfather, that he would now get full custody of the baby boy. He had moved into 12 Grimmauld Place, and it had needed fixing up. It is going to take time to fix the place up, to make it into a home, but for now it will do. Hermione had figured out how to finally get rid of the painting of Sirius’ mother, and some of the posters on Sirius’ wall, and she and Luna have been helping Harry to make the house into more of a home. But Hermione is with Ron and the Weasley’s most of the time. They are trying to deal with losing Fred, but is has broken all of them. And Luna is helping her father, who has been driven mad by his time in Azkaban. The wizards at St. Mungo’s have told her that he will get better, that he just needs some time, but Luna is scared to leave him alone for long times. He tends to go looking for creatures that even Luna has never heard of.  
So Harry is on his own most of the time, taking care of the baby boy. Here he is, just a teenager, he has beaten Voldemort… He had expected things to become easier after that, but things are tough. He wants to grieve, he wants to stay in bed and cry, deal with everything that has happened since his eleventh birthday. He wants to deal with losing Sirius, Dumbledore, Dobby, Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Hedwig, Snape even. But he has no time for himself. He may not be Teddy’s father, but the day Lupin and Tonks died, he did become a parent. And every single minute of the day, he is taking care of the little boy.  
Harry is now sitting on the sofa, the now pink-haired baby boy in his arms, and he is almost falling asleep. All day he has been cleaning the house, and whenever Teddy cried, he had run over to him, scared that someone had come into the house to hurt him. Scared that a Death Eater had come to finish the job. Scared that he wasn’t good enough to take care of Teddy. Scared to disappoint Tonks. Scared to disappoint Lupin.  
There’s a knock on the door, and Harry’s head jerks up. He looks down at Teddy, who is looking up at him with now green eyes. But they have been every colour of the rainbow so far. It used to freak Harry out, to find him looking different every time he saw him, but now it is normal to him. Harry gets up, puts Teddy down in the cot in the corner of the room, and goes to answer the door, holding up his wand. Voldemort may have died, but there are still Death Eaters out there, they are still not all caught and put in Azkaban. But when he opens the door, he finds Hermione standing there, looking exhausted. She wraps her arms around him, and he lowers his wand. He returns the hug, and kicks the door shut.  
“Oh, it is awful, Harry,” Hermione says, and Harry can hear that she is close to tears.  
“What is wrong? What happened?”  
“Nothing, I’m sorry,” she quickly says, and she breaks the hug. “Nothing happened. It’s just horrible, to see in how much pain they are. Molly and Arthur, they… And George…,” she tries, but then she breaks down in tears, and Harry leads her to the living room, and sits her down on the sofa. He quickly goes over to Teddy to check on him, and sees that he is now sleeping. Harry joins Hermione, and grabs her hand.  
“How is Ron?” Harry asks, and Hermione shrugs, tears still falling from her eyes.  
“He’s trying to stay strong, for his family. But when we’re alone, he keeps crying. It doesn’t help that his best friend hasn’t even been to see him once since it happened,” she says, and Harry feels a pang of guilt going through him. “Why weren’t you there?”  
“Where?”  
”At his funeral, Harry.”  
“I couldn’t… I have Teddy, and…”  
“So?” Hermione interrupts him, now looking more disappointed than upset. “He is your best friend, Harry, and his brother died. He needs you. Oh god, you’re not still blaming yourself, are you? Is that why you’re avoiding them?” she asks, and Harry nods, because he knows that there’s no point in lying to her. “You have got to stop blaming yourself, Harry. They chose to fight that night. Fred chose to fight.”  
“If I had gone to see Voldemort sooner…”  
“Then he probably still would have died. Do you really think that Voldemort would have left without leaving victims? I know that that’s what he said, but… think about it, Harry. This was his big fight, he wanted it to be brutal. Fred still would have died,” Hermione tries, but Harry still feels sick with guilt when he thinks about Fred, about the twins, about their family, about Ron…  
“No one is blaming you, Harry. They all miss you.”  
“I can’t…,” Harry says, and Hermione lets out a sigh and looks over to the cot in the corner of the room.  
“So will you be joining all of us tomorrow?”  
“What is happening tomorrow?”  
“We’re going to start cleaning up and rebuilding Hogwarts,” Hermione says, and Harry looks over to Teddy, but before he can come up with an excuse, she interrupts him. “He can stay with Molly. She’d love to look after him. It would be great for her to have a distraction.”  
“But Hermione…”  
“Harry, please.”  
“I’ll be there,” Harry says, and Hermione flashes a small smile. But he is terrified to go back there, to face the true damage that had been caused that night. To face his friends, who have all lost friends. All because of him.  
“Do you want me to take Teddy with me now? Or will you bring him tomorrow morning?”  
“I’ll bring him,” Harry quickly says, because he is not leaving Teddy out of his sight for a full night.  
“So we’ll see you tomorrow then?”  
“Yes,” Harry says, and Hermione flashes a small smile before giving him a long hug. She says goodbye, and Apparates back to the Weasley’s.

“Hey,” Ron says, when he sees Harry Apparating into the grass, carrying Teddy Lupin, and a bag with the baby’s things.  
“Hey,” Harry says, simply not knowing what else to say. Ron comes up to him, and takes the large bag from him. He ruffles the baby’s dark hair, and looks down at him, a sad smile on his face.  
“He looks like his dad.”  
“He does, today,” Harry adds, and Ron can’t help but let out a chuckle. “He ehm… No, Ron, I am sorry.”  
“I know. Hermione explained to us why you stayed away.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“It’s okay,” Ron says. “We’re good,” he adds, and he gives Harry an awkward hug, while trying not to hurt baby Teddy.


	2. Chapter 2

“What do you want, Malfoy?” Harry spits out, when Draco enters the room. Harry is in one of the classrooms that is damaged most, and he is doing his best to clean it, and to try and rebuild it.  
“I’m here to help.”  
“Then go somewhere else. I’m here because I want to be on my own,” Harry says, and Draco nods, but he just sits down on a piece of desk that is still standing. “I mean it!”  
“So do I. I just want to help. I’m not here to fight.”  
“Shouldn’t you be on the run with mummy and daddy? Running from your friends? Or running so you won’t have to go to Azkaban?” Harry asks. He is fully aware of the fact that there is no need to be so mean to Draco, but whenever he sees him, he just wants to fight him. Maybe he just simply wants to fight, and Draco is an easy target. Whichever way around it is, he is feeling angrier and angrier by the second.  
“We don’t have to go to Azkaban, we ehm… we fought on your side.”  
“In the end, maybe. But you were Death Eaters. You deserve to rot away in there,” Harry spits out, but he doesn’t mean it. “I’m sorry.”  
“No, I… I deserve that,” Draco says, looking down at his hands. “I didn’t want to, though.”  
“Yeah, you said.”  
“I mean it,” Draco says. “I never wanted any of this. My parents, they… they had this stupid belief, and they made me. And then he made me. I never wanted this. When they asked me if it was you, I lied. I tried to help you.”  
“Whatever, Malfoy. I don’t care,” Harry says, and he pushes a broken chair to the side, revealing a piece of flesh, covered in tooth marks. He feels sick to his stomach, and he sits down. “Go back to your family.”  
“I don’t want to. I want to be here and help.”  
“Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” Harry asks, but Draco just looks at him, his face full of shame and regret. “You still have your family. You get to live with them, spend time with them. They get to watch you grow up. Don’t ever take that for granted.”  
“I don’t,” Draco quickly says.  
“The Weasley’s, they lost their son,” Harry continues. “Hermione, her parents are still alive, but they have no idea who she is. I lost every single person who has ever been a parent to me. Teddy, he…”  
“He is Lupin’s son, isn’t he?”  
“Yes. He has lost both of his parents. He ended up in the same situation as me.”  
“He hasn’t though, has he?” Draco says, and Harry shoots him a confused look. “I mean, you grew up with your aunt and uncle, didn’t you? They hated you. Teddy, he… he has got you. For him it will be different. It would be how it would have been if you had grown up with Sirius,” he adds, and Harry still feels angry, but it does make him think. He had been so focussed on his situation being the same as Teddy’s, that he had never considered this. But maybe Draco is right. Maybe their situations aren’t the same at all.  
“The last time I saw Remus was when he came to see us, to tell us that Teddy was born,” Harry says, looking down at his hands. “I had never seen him so happy. And not even two weeks later, he was dead. So was his wife. They were killed, by your friends.”  
“They are not my friends,” Draco says, but Harry doesn’t care. “I didn’t want any of them to die.”  
“As if you care. You hated him.”  
“I didn’t,” Draco admits, and Harry looks up. “I actually really liked him. He was probably the best teacher we’ve ever had.”  
“Better than Snape?”  
“Yes. I know that you said that Snape was really trying to protect you, but… he was horrible, wasn’t he? He made your life a living hell. He made Lupin’s life a living hell. He got him fired.”  
“He was bullied by my dad and Sirius back when they were kids, and Lupin never stood up for him. He never forgave him for that,” Harry explains, but Draco shrugs.  
“That’s no reason to treat him that way. You should have heard some of the things he said about him. He was being horrible. Absolutely horrible. I know that I never showed it, because I couldn’t, but I thought Lupin was a great teacher, and a great man. And Tonks…”  
“You didn’t even know her.”  
“That’s not the point, is it? She and Sirius were still my family.”  
“Don’t,” Harry spits out. “Don’t talk about Sirius.”  
“I am sorry though,” Draco eventually says, and Harry lets out a big sigh.  
“I know.”

Draco and Harry have been cleaning up rooms for a few hours now, but everything is still a mess. They have just sat down, to take a break. They haven’t really spoken anymore, except to discuss the cleaning.  
“Isn’t that where the Room of Requirement used to be?” Draco asks, and Harry nods. “Do you think it has fixed itself?”  
“I think it is gone.”  
“Yeah, probably,” Draco says, and another silence follows. But then Harry hears sobbing, and he looks at the blonde teenager next to him. Draco is looking at the empty wall, crying, not even trying to keep it in. Harry feels like he should say something, but what is there to say? Draco had been his enemy for so many years, and here they are, sitting together. No more reason to hate, no more reason to fight. Just two young men who have both been through so much, who are both struggling to deal with everything.  
Harry carefully puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to show some kindness. But Draco jumps up, so Harry does as well. And both teenagers are now standing there, facing each other. Harry tries to put his hand on Draco’s shoulder again, to calm him down, but Draco pushes him away. They start pushing and fighting with each other, and before they know it, they crash into the wall, Harry slamming his head hard against the rock wall. He feels dizzy, and Draco seems to notice, because they stop fighting. He puts his hands on the side of Harry’s face, to check if he is bleeding. But then he presses his lips against Harry’s, and Harry wants to push him away, like last time. But even though something inside of him tells him to push, to stop him, he kisses him back. There is so much emotion, so much pain, so much anger inside of both of them, and it has been taking over their lives for the last weeks. Years. But right now, in this moment, it is all forgotten. There is no more Voldemort, no more death, no more loss, no more anger. Right now there is just the two of them. Right now there is just passion.

“This can never happen again,” Harry says, as he is putting his jeans back on. He had forgotten about everything for a little while, but now he remembers everything. And he feels sick. How can he just have had sex with the person who had been so horrible to him all those years? How could he have done this, when he is supposed to be with Ginny? They haven’t spoken to each other in weeks, but he had assumed that once things had settled down, that they would be together again.  
“I know. Do you think I wanted this to happen?” Draco asks, sounding as horrified and embarrassed as Harry feels. He is buttoning up his shirt, while looking at the dark-haired teenager. “This was a mistake, Potter.”  
“It was,” Harry agrees, and he quickly puts on his t-shirt. He grabs his wand, and leaves, hoping that no one has heard or seen them.

It has been a few days, and Harry is back at Hogwarts. He had wanted to find out if the Room of Requirement is still there, but apparently he isn’t the only one. Because Draco is standing there, his eyes closed, probably thinking about something he really needs. Harry wants to turn around and leave, because he feels like he can’t face Draco. Not after what had happened between them. But he needs to know if the room is still there. So he joins him, and Draco opens his eyes.  
“It has to still be there,” Draco says, and Harry nods, even though he really thinks it must have gotten too damaged to survive. He closes his eyes, and he starts thinking about what he really needs right now. But what does he need? Voldemort is dead, so he doesn’t need weapons anymore. He doesn’t need a room to practice fighting. He doesn’t need a room to hide items. He doesn’t even need a toilet… What does he need… He needs to rest. He needs a break.  
“Look,” Draco says, and Harry opens his eyes. A door has appeared, and Draco opens it. Harry follows him into the room, and they find a warm, comfortable, living room. The fire in the fireplace is burning, lighting up the room in the warmest light possible. The room smells of cinnamon, and apple pie. The furniture is old, but it just makes Harry feel more comfortable. Yes, this is exactly what he needed. He sits down on the sofa, and he takes a deep breath, taking in the smell that makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  
“Is this what your home looked like?” Draco asks, as he joins Harry on the sofa.  
“No. It was nothing like this.”  
“I’ve never been in a room like this before,” Draco admits, and Harry remembers Malfoy Manor. It was cold, empty. No, it was nothing like this. Harry had never had this warmth at home, but he had been shown it at the Weasley’s. He had been shown love, and a warm family home with them. But Draco must have never seen a thing like this, he must have never been shown love. It is something that Harry has never thought about before. He had felt sorry for him before, sorry for him being in the situation he was in. Sorry for him becoming a Death Eater, simply because his parents had made him into one. Sorry for him because he had seemed like a scared little boy, being forced into a position that was made for a much stronger, much older man. But Harry had never felt sorry for him, not for never having been shown love.  
“How do your parents feel, about you being here?” he asks, as Draco looks down at his hands.  
“They don’t know I’m here.”  
“Then where do they think you are?”  
“In my room, probably,” Draco shrugs, and he looks up. Harry wonders how his parents cannot notice him leaving, after everything that has happened. How can they leave him out of their sight? Leaving Teddy with the Weasley’s every morning, it is torture. He trusts them, of course he does, but the thought of not knowing if something is wrong, of not being there when something does happen…   
“You should tell them. They have a right to know where you are,” he says, and Draco nods, and lets out a sigh. But even in this room, which is the most comfortable room that he has ever been in, Harry can’t help but feel uncomfortable.  
“About what happened…,” he begins, his mouth going dry. He expects Draco to say something, interrupt him, say that it was a mistake, it will never happen again. That he cannot mention that again. But Draco just looks at him, keeping quiet. “We were both emotional, so…” Silence. “Say something.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you still with that Weasley girl?” Draco spits out, and it makes Harry regret bringing up the subject. Why hadn’t he kept quiet. They could have simply forgotten about it and moved on. But now hearing Draco talk about Ginny like this, it makes him thing that nothing has changed. This is still the same guy who has hurt him and his friends. Knowing that he had had sex with Draco, while they had both been emotional, he could have dealt with that. But having had sex with the guy, who had fought on Voldemort’s side, that makes him feel sick to his stomach. It makes him feel like he has betrayed every single person who has lost someone that night. Who has lost their life. It makes him feel like he has betrayed his parents.  
“I shouldn’t have come here,” he says, and he gets up to leave. But when Draco grabs his arm, he turns back around, ready to fight.  
“Stay, please,” Draco asks, but it sounds more like the begging of a child. “Please,” he repeats, his hand still around Harry’s arm.  
“Let go of me,” Harry snaps, and he pulls himself free. “This was a mistake,” he says, and he walks away, leaving the warmth, the apple pie and cinnamon smell, the feeling of home, behind him. Entering back into the devastation caused by the battle. A cold feeling comes over him, and all he wants to do is turn back. But when he does, the door has gone. He takes a deep breath, before going to the others to help them with the rebuilding of Hogwarts.

“Harry?” a familiar voice asks, but it takes a few seconds for Harry to fully recognise it. He had been so lost in his thoughts, that the voice makes him snap back into the real world. He looks up, and finds Ginny looking at him, a big smile on her face. They had only seen each other this morning, when Harry had gone over to drop off Teddy, but she hadn’t mentioned that she was coming here to help.  
“What are you doing here?”  
“I want to help, and mum and dad think it’ll be good for me to see other people again,” she says, a nervous look on her face. Since the battle, she hadn’t left the house. So the only people she had seen, are her family. And the people at the funeral. But after weeks, she needs to start living her life again.  
“Right…”  
“Did I interrupt?” she asks, noticing how distracted Harry seems. “Has something happened?”  
“No, why?”  
“Are you sure?” she asks, putting a hand on his back. She does it to make him relax, but his body tenses up more, and he has to try really hard not to tell her to leave. To leave him alone. Because why can’t people just leave him alone? But he knows that she isn’t to blame. He is. He is the one who cheated. He has had sex with Malfoy, and it keeps playing on his mind. The guilt eating him up from the inside out.

He is on the sofa, feeding baby Teddy a bottle, when there’s a knock on the door. He tries to ignore it, because after the last weeks, he just needs a break. Some peace and quiet. But the knocking doesn’t stop, so he gets up, grabs his wand, and goes over to the door, the baby still in his arms.  
“Who’s there?”  
“Please open the door,” Draco says, and Harry nearly drops his wand. How did Malfoy find him? How does he know about this place? Harry takes a deep breath, before opening the door. Draco is standing there, a nervous look on his face. But before Harry can even ask him how he found this place, Draco has answered the question for him.  
“My mother,” he says. “She used to come here when she was younger. Voldemort, he tried to get her to tell him where it was, but she never told him.”  
“Why?”  
“Let me in?” Draco asks, and Harry steps aside to let Draco enter. After closing the door, they go into the kitchen, sitting down at the kitchen table. Draco is looking at the baby in Harry’s arms, but all of the sudden his eyes widen. “Did he just…”  
“Oh, yes,” Harry laughs, when he looks down, and notices Teddy’s hair changing colour again. “He does that.”  
“But…”  
“He takes after Tonks.”  
“Right…,” Draco says, now a guilty look on his face. It is only now that Harry realises that the baby in his arms, is related to Draco. Tonks had been his cousin, so this baby, it’s a part of his family.  
“Do you want to hold him?” he asks, and the look on Draco’s face goes from guilty to surprised. The kind of surprised look that a child has on his face, when you tell them they are about to receive a gift. Draco gives a little nod, but he seems nervous, scared.  
“Yes, please,” he says, and Harry hands him baby Teddy. Lupin’s son. Every once in a while, the little boy resembles his father, and it breaks Harry’s heart. Knowing that Teddy will grow up without his parents, without their love… it isn’t fair. It isn’t right.  
“You must miss them,” Draco says, looking up from Teddy, right at Harry.  
“You lost people too.”  
“Yes,” Draco says, now looking down at the baby in his arms again. Harry can’t help but smile when he sees Teddy’s eyes changing. They now resemble Draco’s eyes. Draco notices as well, and he gets a small smile on his face. He looks up, and when Harry catches his eye, he feels as though he has been hit by electricity. It brings tears to his eyes, and he looks down at his hands, to avoid catching Draco’s eye again.  
“I should ehm…,” Harry eventually says, when Teddy starts getting uncomfortable. He gets up to take the baby from Draco. But their hands touch, and Harry wants to turn and run away. Get away from all of this. From his life. He quickly takes the baby to its cot in the living room, planning on sending Draco home. But when he hears footsteps behind him, he turns around. Draco reaches out his hand, putting it on the side of Harry’s neck. It’s such a soft and gentle touch, that Harry gets chills all over. “We shouldn’t…,” he tries, but before he can say another word, he has pressed his lips against Draco’s. Draco returns the kiss, and it’s so full of passion, so full of need, that Harry pulls him closer, wanting to hold him close. Give him what he needs.

When Harry wakes up the next morning, he finds Draco next to him, watching him. He still feels guilty, but it’s a different kind of guilt. Before, he had felt guilty about having sex with ‘the enemy’, but this guilt, it’s guilt towards Ginny. Towards Draco. He has a girlfriend, and he loves her. He wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Leading Draco on like this? It isn’t right. But last night, feeling Draco’s desire, his need… It hadn’t just been Draco’s need though, had it? It had been his own need. Last night, it is what he had wanted. What he had needed. He and Draco, they share this thing, this past, that draws them together. And since the battle, a fire has been lit between them.  
Harry notices the Dark Mark on Draco’s arm, and he can’t help but stare at it. Draco notices, and quickly turns his arm around, trying to hide it.  
“I’m not…,” he says, but then he smiles. “Not the tattoo, but… this…,” he stutters, trying to find the words. “What we’re doing… I’m not.”  
“Neither am I,” Harry says, and Draco lets out a sigh. They are still in the living room, on the rug on the floor, only a small blanket covering them. “I’m with Ginny.”  
“I know.”  
“So this isn’t…?” Harry asks, too nervous to find the words. He had been scared that he had led Draco on, that he had given him the wrong impression.  
“No.” Draco flashes a smile. “It really isn’t.”

“I don’t want to mess things up between you and Ginny, so… I’m going to be staying away from you for a while,” Draco says, after they have had breakfast.  
“You don’t have to. We can be friends, can’t we?”  
“Not right now. But maybe one day,” Draco says, looking down at his hands. “But right now, when we’re together, this happens. And it shouldn’t. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it… I am glad it has happened, Harry.”  
“Me too,” Harry admits, not able to hide his smile. Draco calling him Harry, not Potter, it means a lot. And he knows that whatever has happened between them in the past, before the battle, it is now forgotten. Everything has changed. Including them.  
“So, can I still come and visit Teddy some time?” Draco asks, as he gets up and goes over to Teddy’s cot. Teddy has dark hair today, and dark eyes. In a way, he reminds Harry of Sirius.  
“Of course, you’re his family.”  
“Yes,” Draco says, as he looks down at the little boy. “You ehm… You are doing a great job, Harry. Lupin and Tonks would have been proud of you. So would have been your parents, and Sirius.”  
“Thank you. That means a lot,” Harry says, and Draco turns around. There is a sadness in his eyes that Harry recognises so well. Sadness caused by all of this. By losing people, by watching them die. “I don’t blame you for any of it. What happened, you…”  
“Should have stood up to him.”  
“He would have killed you.”  
“Yes,” Draco sighs. “But at least I would have done something. I would have tried, I…”  
“You lied to him. You did try. You are not a bad person. Do you hear me? You are not to blame for any of this.”  
“Neither are you,” Draco says, and a silence follows. “Who would have thought, huh? The two of us, here… We will be alright, won’t we?”  
“One day.”  
“So, goodbye then?” Draco asks. Harry takes a deep breath, and as he breathes out, he feels lighter. As though a weight he has been carrying with him for years, has been lifted off his shoulders. What has happened between him and Draco, it has somehow changed things. It has changed something inside of him, and he knows that things will be different from now on. Things will be better.  
“Goodbye. For now.”


End file.
